Carl Carlton, “She’s A Bad Mama Jama” Singer, Dies at 73
The Grammy nominee had struggled with health issues since his 2019 stroke.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Carl Carlton, the R&B and funk singer who scored hits like "Everlasting Love” and “She’s A Bad Mama Jama,” has died at the age of 73. Carlton’s son Carlton Hudgens II announced on Facebook that his father, born Carlton Hudgens, had passed away on Sunday, Dec. 14.
“RIP Dad, Legend Carl Carlton, singer of ‘She's a Bad Mama Jama,” he wrote. “Long hard fight in life and you will be missed.”
Family members, including Hudgens, also wrote on Facebook that many sources have Carlton's birthday incorrect and that Wikipedia had not yet responded to attempts to correct his birth year to 1952, not 1953.
Carl Carlton was born in Detroit and began his music career in the 1960s.
He released his first singles for Lando Records, “I Think of How I Love Her” and “I Love True Love,” and scored local hits in 1965 with “So What” and “Don’t You Need a Boy Like Me.”
But his breakthrough came in the '70s, when he hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his cover of “Everlasting Love” in 1974. His biggest hit was 1981’s “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built She’s Stacked).” The song was nominated for a Grammy; and it currently has over 100 million streams on Spotify. The song went on to be sampled by Foxy Brown for her 1997 “Big Bad Mama” with Dru Hill, as well as many other musicians, It was also featured on soundtracks for movies such as Miss Congeniality 2 and TV shows like Friends.
Carlton continued to perform until he suffered a stroke in 2019 and was forced to deal with health issues in its aftermath.
“R.I.P Dad, You can finally rest now,” Hudgens added on Facebook. “Always love you.”
